KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Soon after the ball left Aaron Judge's bat and soared into the night Tuesday toward a place no ball at Kauffman Stadium ever landed, New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone leapt from the dugout and craned his neck down the third-base line.
"I had to make sure I had a good view of it," Boone said. "That was evaporated."
Judge's 24th home run of his exceptional 2025 season staked the Yankees a first-inning lead they never yielded in a 10-2 victory against the Kansas City Royals, landing an estimated 469 feet from home plate and nearly going over the Royals Hall of Fame building that juts out from the left-field foul pole.
With another homer -- his third in two games -- Judge added to a season-long statistical line that sounds fictitious: .396/.491/.776 with the second-highest home run total in the major leagues and an American League-leading 58 RBIs. In a season of nothing but achievement, the home run -- the third longest in the major leagues this season and seventh longest in Judge's illustrious career -- was a particular exclamation point.
It came off Royals rookie Noah Cameron, who entered the game with a 0.85 ERA, having not given up more than a run in any of his five major league starts. Two batters in, feasting on a 2-0 fastball, Judge already had staked the Yankees a two-run lead. Since the advent of MLB's ball-tracking system, only five balls at Kauffman landed farther away from home than Judge's. And just two home runs in 2025 -- Mike Trout's 484-foot blast and Logan O'Hoppe's 470-foot shot -- landed farther from home plate.
A two-time AL MVP, Judge is in the midst of the best extended stretch of his career. He finished Tuesday's game with a 1.267 OPS -- 256 points ahead of the second-best figure in the game, Shohei Ohtani's 1.011.
"The most amazing part of it is I feel like he's just playing well," Boone said. "I don't feel like he's been on fire at any point. That's what's amazing about it. I think he's just out there playing well, getting his hits, doing his thing, but in a lot of ways, I'm honestly still waiting for him to catch fire and then that's when it gets really scary.
"If he keeps ascending from here, I won't be surprised, either."
With a crowd of 30,017 on hand to see the home debut of slugging Royals prospect Jac Caglianone, Judge reminded that everyone in baseball's power pales to the 6-foot-7, 282-pound leviathan. While Judge's home run prowess is immense, barely a handful of the 339 he has hit in the regular season went farther than Tuesday's.
Per usual, Judge didn't bother admiring his handiwork. He put his head down, ran the bases and appreciated a job well done -- only not for too long.
"Once you do something like that, you can enjoy for a second," Judge said, "but when the moment's over, you got to get on to the next thing.
"You watch it for a second, make sure it's going out of the park and then start your stroll. I try not to watch it too much."
Others couldn't help themselves. Boone makes sure not to take for granted Judge's exploits. Pitchers have spent all season trying to figure out solutions to stop him, only to watch mistakes find a new home on the other side of the fence.
"He's playing in a different league," Boone said. "He needs to get called up."